Austin Carr (1948- )

I sent Austin Carr an old sports cartoon and 3x5 card to sign in 2010. He must have liked the cartoon so much that he kept it and only returned the 3x5 card. For six years, the 3x5 autograph was a mystery to me. I couldn't decipher the signature until I asked a fellow collector, Matt Schwade, to take a look at it. In late 2016, he solved the mystery: the autograph was Austin Carr's. Big thanks to Matt.

Ernie Calverly (1924-2003)

Most of the players were making $3,500 or $4,000. Teachers at the time were making $1,800. I was making $8,200. I was the rich kid on the block. Ernie Calverly, on his 1946-47 earnings

Ernie Calverly autographed this 1944 Sam Davis cartoon.

Calverly led the nation in scoring in 1943-44, averaging 26.7 points per game, and hit a half-court buzzer-beater in the 1946 NIT to propel the Rams over Bowling Green, eventually losing in the finals to Kentucky. As coach, Calverly led the Rams from 1958-68, compiling a 139-114 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances in 1961 and 1968, and was inducted into the URI and New England sports halls of fame.

Rod Caudill (1923-1994)

Guard/Forward—(Ohio State)

Rod Caudill autographed this 1944 Jack Sords cartoon.

In his letter, written only three years before his death, Caudill, a psychiatrist, wrote: "Omigosh what you resurrected! And isn't it a small world? Is this autograph hunting a fun or commercial or both endeavor? Or perhaps a hidden agenda sleuthing? Or part of the Utah penchant for research? Oh well I could go on & on. But you reminded me of some mighty pleasant experiences. Thanks for the interest." Only a psychiatrist could make more out of a simple autograph request than was actually intended. Hidden agenda--my word!

Bobby "Cookie" Cook (1923-2004)

He graduated from Harvard High School in Harvard, Illinois, in 1941. He then served in the U.S. Navy for three years and then went to the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated in 1948. He played forward and was Wisconsin's leading scorer on the 1947 basketball team that won the Big Ten championship and placed third in Eastern Regional play. He was named All Big Ten as a junior and senior and led the Big Ten in scoring in 1947 with a 15.6 point average. He established a Big Ten record for field goal percentage (.727) in a game by hitting 8-11 shots versus Northwestern in 1948. He was a two-time (1946 and 1948) winner of the team most valuable player honors. He also played third base on Wisconsin's 1946 league co-championship team.

Dick Dickey (1926-2006)

When Dick played for the Celtics he wasn't playing much and asked to be traded. But, the way he told it, they didn't want to trade him because he was one of the few who could guard Bob Cousy. John Bragg

Dick Dickey autographed this 1950 Tom Paprocki cartoon.

He would practice an innovative one-handed jump shot, which later made him famous at N.C. State. Most players in the 1940s were using a two-hand set shot. After high school, Dickey entered the Navy and grew five inches during his two years of military service. While playing for a Navy basketball team, Dickey attracted the attention of Everett Case, one-time Anderson High School coach who had just taken the N.C. State job. Dickey was part of a 10-player all-Indiana recruiting class called the "Hoosier Hotshots" and included Sloan and Vic Bubas. Dickey was a three-year starter at Pendleton before helping to make basketball history as a key player in the post-war program Indiana native Everett Case built primarily with Hoosier players at North Carolina State. Dickey was All-Southern Conference (there wasn't an Atlantic Coast Conference yet) all four of his Wolfpack years, scoring 1,644 points. The school retired his number in 1999.

Billy Evans (1932- )

Wes Fesler (1908-1989)

Guard—(Ohio State) [All-American 1931]

Fesler was Ohio State’’s second three-time All-American, winning first-team recogniton at end in 1928, ’’29 and ’’30. Fesler, who also played fullback for the Buckeyes, was team captain as a senior. He also was the Ohio State and the Big Ten MVP in 1930. Fesler, a superb all-around athlete, earned nine letters, three each in football, basketball and baseball. In basketball, he won All-Big Ten honors in 1931. In baseball, he spent time in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. After graduating, Fesler served one year as an assistant on the OSU staff and then was head football coach at Princeton and Penn. In 1947, he returned to his alma mater as head coach and spent four years, compiling a 21-13-3 record and winning the 1949 Big Ten Championship and the 1950 Rose Bowl.

They may have called me Dutch because I didn’t look Jewish, had a kind of German-looking face. But probably the real reason was that as a kid when I’d climb over the fence to play ball in the school yard, three-on-three, I’d play with my back to the basket to pass off to teammates cutting by me, just like Dutch Dehnert used to do for the Original Celtics. He invented that style and they called it “playing Dutch,” and so they called me “Dutch,” too. Dutch Garfinkel

Dick Groat (1930- )

There's no question about it, I was a much, much better basketball player [than baseball player]. Baseball was hard work for me. I did not have great speed. I did not have a great arm, nor did I have great power. Basketball was my best sport. It came easy for me. . . . I can honestly say I learned more about basketball from Red [Auerbach] in three months than from all the other coaches I ever played for or worked with at any level. He made me aware of things about my game I hadn’t ever thought about. When I played in the NBA, I could still hear his voice in my heat at times telling me to do something. Dick Groat

Richie Guerin (1932- )

The jump shot is more glamorous, I suppose, but the two-hander had an advantage in that late in the game the motion of the jump shot takes its toll on the body. There's no real exertion to the two-hander. That was the swan song of the two-hander. I'm sorry to see it go. It added something, something very nice to the game. Richie Guerin, the last player in the NBA to shoot the two-handed set on 19 Apr. 1970

Cecil Hankins (1922-2002)

Hankins was the catalyst in '45 and we would never have won it without him. Bob Kurland

Cecil Hankins autographed this 1946 Tom Paprocki cartoon.

Hankins was the second-leading scorer on OSU's first NCAA championship basketball team. He averaged 13.4 points for the 1945 title squad and scored 15 in a championship game victory over New York University. Hankins also ran track and was a contributor on OSU football teams that earned invitations to the 1945 Cotton Bowl and 1946 Sugar Bowl. He was the Cowboys' leading receiver in 1944 and played a huge role in a 46-40 victory over Tulsa that season, running four times for 45 yards and catching five passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns.

Hot Rod Hundley (1934-2015)

Hot Rod Hundley autographed this 1957 Alan Maver cartoon in February 2010. I also have two different signed 1956 Tom Paprocki cartoons.

Watch a video clip of Hundley entering the West Virginia University arena for the retiring of his jersey. Watch a video clip of Hundley accepting the retirement of his West Virginia University jersey #33. Watch a video clip of Hot Rod hitting a hook shot after his jersey is retired at WVU; the crowd erupts. Watch a video clip of Hot Rod and other great players recalling the 1962 L.A. vs. Boston NBA finals; Hot Rod answers Curt Gowdy's question about his dribbling skills.

George King (1928-2006)

George is a good friend and was a great boss. He let you do your thing, and if you were out of line, he would tell you right away. He didn't mince words, but he let you do your job. Gene Keady

George King autographed this 1952 Tom Paprocki cartoon.

He led the nation in scoring for two seasons at Morris Harvey, from which he graduated in 1950. King played for Syracuse and Cincinnati in the NBA, and then coached at WVU and Purdue. King coached the Boilermakers from 1965-72, compiling a 109-64 record, including the 1969 Big Ten championship. King was appointed athletic director in 1971, heading the department for 21 years before retiring in 1992. He once chaired the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and headed several postseason bowl committees.

Jack Landon

Guard—(Oklahoma) Tulsa Ranchers (PBLA) [6.0 avg]

York Larese (1938-2016)

Guard—(North Carolina) Philadelphia Warriors 1961-62 [5.1 avg]

He was a hardhead — not a guy who took instructions well. Tom Meschery

This Tom Paprocki cartoon appeared in newspapers in February 1961.

York Larese was one of the few players to be named All-ACC every year he was eligible, sweeping those honors in 1959, 1960 and 1961 in the final three years of the legendary Frank McGuire's coaching tenure at Carolina. He was also named second-team All-America as a senior. A 6-4 guard from New York City, Larese was a great shooter capable of scoring from anywhere on the court. He was especially deadly from the free throw line, leading the ACC in foul shooting in 1960 with a percentage of 86.8. That stood as the Carolina record for 25 years until it was broken by Steve Hale in 1985. Larese had an unusual free throw form, simply shooting the ball as quickly as an official handed it to him. Sometimes, the official couldn't even step back before the ball was in the air.

Ray Lumpp (1923-2015)

We beat France in the final and it was like 48-10 at halftime and we were asked by Olympic officials not to embarrass the French team. Ray Lumpp

Ray Lumpp, who starred in basketball for NYU and the 1948 gold medal U.S. Olympic team, received the President's Alumni Achievement Award of NYU. As captain of the 1947-48 NYU team, Lumpp set a single-season scoring record of 377 points, then scored 38 at the Olympics in London.

Harold "Hack" Miller (1915-1998)

Hack Miller autographed this 1935 Ev Thorpe cartoon. I took the photo of him in 1990 at a Riverton, Utah, 4th of July parade. I asked him to be the grand marshal.

Johnny O'Brien (1930- )

Guard—(Seattle) [All-American 1953; played major league baseball 1953,1955-59]

If a guy face-guarded me, Ed [Johnny’s twin brother] would lob the ball up near the rim and I'd just go get it. I'd make a fake and get open, and Ed would get me the ball, and so it evolved. I was perfectly aware that without Ed there, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish a lot of what I did. Johnny O'Brien

This 1952 Alan Maver cartoon is one of two different O'Brien-signed cartoons in my collection.

Though only 5 feet 9, Johnny O'Brien became the first college player to score 1,000 points in a season when he tallied 1,051 in 1951-52. In 1953, he averaged more than 28 points a game in winning the national scoring title and becoming a consensus All-American. He also became the first NCAA player to score 3,000 for his career (3,302). He had amazing quickness. Yet he was no one-man show. His twin brother, Eddie O’Brien, fed Johnny the ball. The O'Briens never made it to the NBA. They were drafted by the old Milwaukee Hawks, but turned to pro baseball instead, as infielders and part-time pitchers. Each accepted a $25,000 signing bonus from the Pittsburgh Pirates and went straight to the majors, becoming the first set of twins to play together on the same big- league team, if not appear together on the same trading card.

Jim Phelan (1929- )

Guard—(La Salle) Philadelphia Warriors 1953-54 [4g, 1.5 avg; Coach—Mount St. Mary's University 1954-2003; National Coach of the Year 1962; National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame 2008; holds NCAA record of most games coached, 1,354 in career]

I wasn’t gung-ho about the pros because, when you live in San Francisco, air travel is expensive. I was the No. 1 draft choice for the Lakers and offered $15,000, but flying back and forth took $1,500 of that. You couldn’t put away any money that way, and by the same token I had two bad knees to start with, so I was faking it from the day I started. But I made enough money to make a down payment on a home at the right time. Kevin O’Shea

Kevin O'Shea autographed this 1950 Alan Maver cartoon.

Ossie Schectman (1919-2013)

It was a fast break, I remember. Three of us were coming down. I had the center position. The ball was given back to me and it was a two-hand, underhanded layup shot. Ossie Schectman, on scoring the first basket in NBA history on 1 November 1946

On this Tom Paprocki cartoon, Shechtman complimented me: "Truly one of the greatest basketball fans I have ever come across."

All the other ones had gone in. I figured that one [the 100th point] would, too. People remember that and they don't remember anything else. Frank Selvy, on being the only man to score 100 points in an NCAA Division I game

See video clip of Frank Selvy in the 1954 College All Star game. See video clip of Selvy in 1954 College All Americans against the Harlem Globetrotters.

Selvy scored 100 points against Newberry on Feb. 13, 1954. Contested in front of over 4,000 spectators, including Selvy's mother, who along with dozens of friends and family members traveled from Corbin, Ky., to watch her son play for the first time as a collegian, the "Corbin Comet" etched his name into basketball history with a record setting performance that has since been matched by only one other player, the great Wilt Chamberlain as a member of the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors. Selvy's milestone against Newberry, completed with an estimated 43-foot shot as time expired, highlighted a senior season that saw him earn consensus All-America and United Press National Player-of-the-Year honors. Furman finshed the year 20-9 with wins over Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Clemson, Manhattan, and Georgia Tech, and many others. Selected No. 1 in the 1954 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets, Selvy played nine years of professional ball, including the last five with the Los Angeles Lakers. A two-time NBA All-Star, he averaged 10.8 ppg in his career.

Larry “Telstar” Siegfried (1939-2010)

I was an energetic type of person. And I also loved my cartoons back then. In the morning, I'd get up early and flip on the television to catch the cartoons. But Siegfried would get up, walk over to the TV, flip it off, and the only thing he would say is “bedtime.” I couldn't make a single noise in the morning. I couldn't even [go to the bathroom] without making too much noise. Calvin Murphy

See video clip showing Larry Siegfried (#20) in March 1, 1965 eastern division title game in which Celtics defeat San Francisco Warriors. He was buried in Shelby-Oakland Cemetery, Shelby, Ohio.

Meyer "Whitey" Skoog (1926- )

Guard—(Minnesota) Minneapolis Lakers 1951-57 [8.2 avg]

He was the first guy to shoot the jumper on a regular basis here. He could hit that thing from all over the court. We had some good players at that spot before Whitey, but he was the best — a shooter and an athlete. I remember Johnny Kundla was mad at him during a playoff series with the Knicks and didn't want to take him to New York. [General manager] Max Winter wound up saying, “Take him.” The games were played in the 69th Street Armory. Skoog went wild, hitting those jumpers. The New York writers were all asking, “Who's this Skoo-j?” Sid Hartman

Whitey Skoog autographed this 1950 Tom Paprocki cartoon.

Rod Thorn (1941- )

In our house it was school and sports, school first and then sports, and that was about it Dad was a disciplinarian, but our lives were idyllic. There were no drugs, no ghettos, no problems and a lot of fun. My feeling when I got out of high school was that I would be a professional baseball player. I thought that was my best sport. And if I wasn't going to play baseball I figured I would be a doctor. Well, two years into West Virginia I thought I still might be a baseball player, but I knew I wasn't going to be a doctor. My final choice came down to West Virginia and Duke. I didn't feel like I had to go to West Virginia. But the program was at the top and I liked Coach Schaus very much and he recruited me. There was a lot of talk about me following Jerry West. I even heard it in high school. But most of the pressure I felt I put on myself. Like a normal kid, I heard all the talk about being West Virginia's next All-American. I made All- American, but I wasn't a Jerry West. He was one of those special players that comes along and I was not in that category. Rod Thorn

Rod Thorn autographed this 1963 Tom Paprocki cartoon.

Bill Tosheff (1926-2011)

After my career in Indiana, I was drafted into the NBA by the Indianapolis Olympians for the ‘51-52 season. The Olympians were then owned by the Kentucky Five — Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Cliff Barker, Joe Holland and Wah Wah Jones. They had come into the league with their own franchise in 1949. Groza was the Rookie of the Year that year. I was also recruited by the Phillips Oilers and the Goodyear Wingfoots of the industrial league, but I didn’t care to get into industry. I wanted to play pro ball. I took the first contract from Indianapolis over to coach Her Schaefer, an All-American from Indiana and on the 1940 national championship team. I said, “Herm, what do you think of this contract?” He said, “Gosh, it’s a damn good contract.” It was for $4,500. My first year I became the co-Rookie of the Year, along with BYU’s Mel Hutchins of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Bill Tosheff

After signing his autograph, Tosheff printed on the bottom of this January 1952 Paprocki cartoon, "Not to be used for commercial purposes." In his initialed note he wrote: "Interesting how the past is surfacing. This photo was given to me in person by Pap in 1952 in Madison Square Garden after a N.Y. Knick game. It was his original drawing."